Wednesday, December 21st, 2016, at 12pm noon ET

Webinar Summary

Neuroimaging techniques have evolved rapidly over the past decade and now allow for the inference of microscopic changes along with alterations in physiology and function. These existing and emerging techniques hold the potential of providing unprecedented capabilities in achieving a diagnosis for a variety of neurological diseases. However, many of the most powerful approaches cannot be used in patient care. These neuroimaging approaches are quantitative in nature and remain confined to population-based research, due to the lack of available population-based normative data for comparison that is disease relevant and free of artifactual variability between sites and scanners. The lack of normative neuroimaging data is a major barrier to the clinical utilization of advanced neuroimaging sequences.

This presentation outlined gaps in the optimal utilization of neuroimaging sequences relevant to TBI diagnosis and discussed efforts to: (i) build an age-stratified neuroimaging library from normal individuals using standard sequences relevant to TBI, (ii) establish optimal standards for normalization of neuroimaging data acquisition between scanners, and (iii) discuss how normative data may be used to support population level research studies while helping to identify predictive imaging patterns for single subject analysis in a patient care setting.

About James R. Stone, MD, PhDAssociate Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging
University of Virginia

James R. Stone, MD, PhD is Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging at the University of Virginia. He is also a founding member of the American College of Radiology Head Injury Institute. He is a clinical Interventional Radiologist with a neuroscience background. His laboratory currently explores questions related to improving the clinical diagnosis of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in both preclinical models and human subjects.

Ongoing preclinical work includes the design and investigation of molecular imaging probes for the detection of acute and chronic effects of TBI. Probes under investigation include those targeting inflammation, cell death, and altered neurotransmitter receptor activity. He is involved with work exploring neurovascular changes in a preclinical blast TBI model. Human subjects efforts focus upon exploring neuroimaging correlates of repetitive low-level blast exposure in military populations. The goals of this work include determining whether military service members in this environment are at risk for development of mild TBI and helping to establish safe stand off limits for low-level blast exposure.

Additionally, Dr. Stone is involved with efforts to build a normative library to support improved population level research and work towards single subject assessment of patients with TBI. He is additionally involved with work utilizing machine learning/deep learning approaches for the automated segmentation of imaging findings diagnostic of TBI. Further, he is a member of the neuroimaging core laboratory for the Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium. Dr. Stone’s work receives support from the Defense Health Program through USUHS and MRMC. His work also receives support from the Office of Naval Research and the Department of Veterans Affairs. His participation on efforts to establish a normative neuroimaging library receives support from Cohen Veterans Bioscience.

WHO WE ARE

Cohen Veterans Bioscience is a national, nonpartisan research 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to fast-tracking the development of diagnostic tests and personalized therapeutics for the millions of veterans and civilians who suffer the devastating effects of trauma-related and other brain disorders. Learn More